查拉图斯特拉如是说 英文版 Thus Spake Zarathustra
尼采 Friedrich Nietzsche
XLIII. Manly Prudence.
Not the height, it is the declivity that is terrible!
The declivity, where the gaze shooteth DOWNWARDS, and the hand graspethUPWARDS. There doth the heart become giddy through its double will.
Ah, friends, do ye divine also my heart's double will?
This, this is MY declivity and my danger, that my gaze shooteth towards thesummit, and my hand would fain clutch and lean--on the depth!
To man clingeth my will; with chains do I bind myself to man, because I ampulled upwards to the Superman: for thither doth mine other will tend.
And THEREFORE do I live blindly among men, as if I knew them not: that myhand may not entirely lose belief in firmness.
I know not you men: this gloom and consolation is often spread around me.
I sit at the gateway for every rogue, and ask: Who wisheth to deceive me?
This is my first manly prudence, that I allow myself to be deceived, so asnot to be on my guard against deceivers.
verily, ye good and just.
Ah, if I were on my guard against man, how could man be an anchor to myball! Too easily would I be pulled upwards and away!
This providence is over my fate, that I have to be without foresight.
And he who would not languish amongst men, must learn to drink out of allglasses; and he who would keep clean amongst men, must know how to washhimself even with dirty water.
And thus spake I often to myself for consolation: "Courage! Cheer up! oldheart! An unhappiness hath failed to befall thee: enjoy that as thy--happiness!"
This, however, is mine other manly prudence: I am more forbearing to theVAIN than to the proud.
Is not wounded vanity the mother of all tragedies? Where, however, prideis wounded, there there groweth up something better than pride.
That life may be fair to behold, its game must be well played; for thatpurpose, however, it needeth good actors.
Good actors have I found all the vain ones: they play, and wish people tobe fond of beholding them--all their spirit is in this wish.
They represent themselves, they invent themselves; in their neighbourhood Ilike to look upon life--it cureth of melancholy.
Therefore am I forbearing to the vain, because they are the physicians ofmy melancholy, and keep me attached to man as to a drama.
And further, who conceiveth the full depth of the modesty of the vain man!I am favourable to him, and sympathetic on account of his modesty.
From you would he learn his belief in himself; he feedeth upon yourglances, he eateth praise out of your hands.
Your lies doth he even believe when you lie favourably about him: for inits depths sigheth his heart: "What am _I_?"
And if that be the true virtue which is unconscious of itself--well, thevain man is unconscious of his modesty!--
This is, however, my third manly prudence: I am not put out of conceitwith the WICKED by your timorousness.
I am happy to see the marvels the warm sun hatcheth: tigers and palms andrattle-snakes.
Also amongst men there is a beautiful brood of the warm sun, and much thatis marvellous in the wicked.
that I allow myself to !
In truth, as your wisest did not seem to me so very wise, so found I alsohuman wickedness below the fame of it.
And oft did I ask with a shake of the head: Why still rattle, ye rattle-snakes?
Verily, there is still a future even for evil! And the warmest south isstill undiscovered by man.
How many things are now called the worst wickedness, which are only twelvefeet broad and three months long! Some day, however, will greater dragonscome into the world.
For that the Superman may not lack his dragon, the superdragon that isworthy of him, there must still much warm sun glow on moist virgin forests!
Out of your wild cats must tigers have evolved, and out of your poison-toads, crocodiles: for the good hunter shall have a good hunt!
And verily, ye good and just! In you there is much to be laughed at, andespecially your fear of what hath hitherto been called "the devil!"
So alien are ye in your souls to what is great, that to you the Supermanwould be FRIGHTFUL in his goodness!
And ye wise and knowing ones, ye would flee from the solar-glow of thewisdom in which the Superman joyfully batheth his nakedness!
Ye highest men who have come within my ken! this is my doubt of you, and mysecret laughter: I suspect ye would call my Superman--a devil!
Ah, I became tired of those highest and best ones: from their "height" didI long to be up, out, and away to the Superman!
A horror came over me when I saw those best ones naked: then there grewfor me the pinions to soar away into distant futures.
Into more distant futures, into more southern souths than ever artistdreamed of: thither, where Gods are ashamed of all clothes!
But disguised do I want to see YOU, ye neighbours and fellowmen, and well-attired and vain and estimable, as "the good and just;"--
And disguised will I myself sit amongst you--that I may MISTAKE you andmyself: for that is my last manly prudence.--
Thus spake Zarathustra.